The Ultimate SaaS Conference Playbook for 2023: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Making a Real Impact

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After doing a marathon with conferences this year, I felt the need to put put a wholesome guide that covers all questions that you might have (well at least, when we started out – we did have these questions). Hope this has the answer to your questions

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When do I attend International SaaS events?

?The first question that pops into everyone's head is “At what stage do I attend these events” “Am I too small for it?”, “Will it be worth all that money?”.?

There’s no right answer. You know your audience best.

There are no guarantees in conferences – No guaranteed meetings or leads.?

You need to hustle. Events are all about the hustle.?

A simple way to decide whether you need to attend international events or not would be:?

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• Either you need to be a VC-backed startup or
• Need to be profitable
• Or need to have the conviction that your ICP will 100% be at one of these conferences and you will be able to get the first bunch of clients via this conference.

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Which SaaS event do I go for?

Speak to everyone you know!??

What We’ve learned in attending SaaS events this past year is that – generic SaaS events like SaaStr are a hit or a miss from a business perspective. You need to talk to as many people as possible with the hope that the person you speak with might be your ICP.

So It all boils down to two things:?

- ? How many people do you talk to (to increase your chances)

- ? Luck

So a smarter route (which we haven’t validated yet) would be to go to a verticalized SaaS event where your ICP would be present.

What are the things you can do to increase your chances of meeting the right set of audience:

You can do a few things. Go into the portal that you have for networking (SaaStr has something called Braindate. Each event has its own version of it).

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• Host as many as possible
• Attend relevant ones
• Find what your competition is doing. Look at other sessions their attendees are attending and attend them (or try setting up brand dates with them 1-1).

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Things I haven’t tried too much but see other people doing:

• Scrape the attendee list (of the attendee portal) and do cold outreaches to them requesting them for meetings before the event.
• Rinse and repeat on LinkedIn.

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Does this work? No idea. I have only replied to 1 out of 10 emails I get.?

How do you make the most out of events???

• Don’t attend a single session. Maybe sit in one when your leg hurts.
• Walk around and around and around and talk to as many as people as you possibly can
• Walk up to 10 people for every one person that walks up to you but then if you’re an average dude looking like me – the chances are no one is going to approach to talk to you.?

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Be shameless! Just go speak. If you’re even hesitating to approach someone to talk to at a conference - What even are you doing??

And please for crying out loud - forget about attending these “sessions”.?

If you were there to learn from these speakers – you could have streamed them live or watched a bunch of YouTube videos.

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It just doesn’t make sense! You just need to be speaking to as many as people. That’s why you’re there.

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What companies must attend these conferences??

Let me try giving you a direct answer to this:?

• Upwards of $12K ACV (well – You need to be a Mid to High ACV product. Otherwise the ROI just doesn’t make sense)
• If you’re in your zero-to-one journey and you’re a VC-backed startup - You’re going to be trying out a bunch of different things and hoping that something works in order for you to get your first bunch of clients. Desperate times = Desperate measures. Just go.?

Just know why you’re there.

Should you put up a booth at these conferences?

First question – Are you willing to spend upwards of $50k? If not – these are out of the question for you.

• It would boil down to the money you have in your bank. Assuming you have the stomach to put up a stall - You should know how to make the most of it. You’d be surprised how so many of these booths miss out on opportunities.?
• It depends on the event, the size of the crowd, and your relevant ICP attending the event.?

Here is some info based on the events I attended:?

- ? At SaaStr Singapore and Europa – The people who put up stalls weren’t really happy with the placement and what they got out of it.

- ? As of SaaStr, Annual – It seemed like an investment worth making based on the sheer crowd that was present at the event. Heard one of the booths made upwards of $150k in less than a week (at least thats what the founder claimed).

- ? At Dreamforce – I heard the stalls begin upwards of $250k. Needless to say - you need to be deeply embedded in the Salesforce ecosystem to even put up a stall there.?

Who attends these events??

I had an expectation vs Reality mismatch for sure. The majority of the attendees at these events are startups - Startups that are bootstrapped or that have raised seed rounds. The other chunk of the attendees are really large companies. Huge white space in mid-size companies attending these events.

Having said that - I did meet some mid-size companies. But for the most part - it was smaller companies (or really large ones)

Should you host an Afterparty?

?A lot of brands you can collaborate with. Host events with similar companies that have a similar ICP to make this happen. According to the little I know -? You need to consider this as a “branding” exercise and not as a “lead-gen” exercise.

The best people to talk to about this subject would be:

• William Ballance or Will Aitken from Lavender ?? ?
• Rahul Krishnan from Toplyne
• Nivas Ravichandran and Rajiv Ramanan from Spendflo (Spendflo hosts intimate dinners with their ICP)

Schedule meetings around the conference

Everyone tries to setup meetings around the events – not too many (from the people I have spoken to) have really succeeded at this. Ironically, we’ve transitioned to a digital era and when you’re quite early in your prospecting stage – it is quite difficult to get in-meeting meetings these days. The only way this could happen is if you’re way deeper into your sales cycle.

Discovery calls are easier online vs offline.

But what has worked around conferences is setting up VC calls.

But one person I know who cracked this - Shekhar Patil from Tacitbase .

Everything else you need to know about Conferences?

Don’t lie to yourself. Know exactly why you’re attending the conference.?

You need to know why you’re attending this event - Leads or Investors? As much as you think its possible to do both – its not. You might end up doing a bit of nothing.

Bullshit everyone says at conferences!

“We’re here to understand ‘this country’s’ ecosystem”. Like you could understand how the entire country works in 2 days!

Hard truth of conferences

Someone told me this at a conference and it resonated with me “Everyone is selling to Everyone and no ones buying”

How many of you should be attending these events??

I would say attend in pairs of two. Easier to make conversations. You will end up talking to more people this way. Initiating conversation is not the easiest things to do but when you’re in a pair – it gets split.

What are the challenges in these events?

The drop-offs from the people you talk to who verbally said “Sure – reach out to me on LinkedIn” vs Actual meetings happening.

?How do you optimize for that? I really don’t know.

One thing that has worked for me is fixing dates on your calendar right then and there.

The challenge is everyone is meeting a lot of people. You need to do something that makes you stand out.

I keep it simple – I talk about unique perspectives or something that no one else would talk about.

?Someone told me that “clicking a selfie” with the person and sending them that pic – helps.?

What do you wear at these events?

Anything you freaking want! No one cares. This is the startup world. Just wear something you’re comfortable and confident in. (and of course, you can wear shorts as well). That extra pair of formals that you plan on carrying – Don’t. You won’t need it.

Anything else??

• Jetlag – Trust me, its real. Not one of those to brush away like I’ve always done. This is only true in my trip to the US where the time difference was -12 hours.
• Accommodation – Stay close to the venue. Don’t cut costs here – the closer you are – the more side events you will be able to attend. Don't be pennywise and pound foolish.
• Whatsapp - Reach out to people in your country who are attending these events. Would help in getting around and learning other things that are happening
• Find other side events happening around the main event.?
• Search on LinkedIn via Hashtags
• Use websites like eventbrite to find out other local events happening

Rating of Conferences we attended this year:?

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???? SaaStr, Singapore

?? Promised vs Actual: 1000 vs 700+

?? Attendee Type: Mini-India; Mostly known faces; Low non-India startups

?? Revisit?: Maybe

?? Notes: None

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- ???? SaaStr, Europa

- ?? Promised vs Actual: 4000+ vs 1300-1500

- ?? Attendee Type: Absolute disappointment; Organizer's miss

- ?? Revisit?: Hell No!

- ?? Notes: Read this

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?? SaaStr , Annual

?? Promised vs Actual: 12500 vs 10000+

?? Attendee Type: Lived up to the hype

?? Revisit?: Yes

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???? SaaSBoomi , Annual

?? Promised vs Actual: Not specified

?? Attendee Type: A bit of everything

?? Revisit?: Yes

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???? SaaSboomi, SF

?? Promised vs Actual: Not specified

?? Attendee Type: Founders from India

?? Revisit?: Yes

?? Notes: One of the better events for one-on-one founder interactions

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???? Dreamforce

?? Promised vs Actual: Lol - Biggest ever

?? Attendee Type: Must visit if in Salesforce Ecosystem

?? Revisit?: No

?? Notes: Next-level scale; Food sucked

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???? TechCrunch

?? Promised vs Actual: Biggest Disappointment

?? Attendee Type: Pre-launch to small startups

?? Revisit?: No

?? Notes: Poorly organized. Didn't even provide food for the participants

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Fun Things around conferences that I've seen that stood out:

• Here is something that Togai by Zuora did at SaaStr, Singapore
• Here is something super-cool that Lark did at SaaStr, Singapore
• Here is how Robin Singhvi from SmartCue ceased a small window of opportunity he got at SaaSboomi, Annual
• Here is how OSF Digital knocked it out of the park at Dreamforce
• Here is what Command AI (fka CommandBar) did at SaaStr, Annual
• Here is something that Togai by Zuora did for SaaStr, EU

One last note - Just remember that the bottom line of setting up meetings is how you’re likable as a person and a unique perspective or thing that you do that makes you stand out.?

Its not about your product! Its you, Its only You!?

If you have any questions around events in general or these in particular - don't hestiate to reach out :)